Athena Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Great reviews, I'm glad you're enjoying your books . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 Thanks Athena! I am reading a little bit more this last couple of weeks because I haven't wrote anything for 10 days. Nothing serious, just figuring out what my characters are going to do next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 I hope you can figure it out ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 All excellent reviews, James. I believe I have The Ruins of Time on the shelf here. The Violent Century sounds quite interesting.....it reminds me, in premise, a bit of these...http://www.amazon.com/His-Majestys-Dragon-Temeraire-Book/dp/0345481283 I've read several of them, and quite enjoyed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted September 6, 2014 Author Share Posted September 6, 2014 That series of books looks quite interesting Kate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted September 13, 2014 Author Share Posted September 13, 2014 The Warwickshire Scandal 4/5 Elizabeth Hamilton This was a non-fiction "research" book but it soon became quite gripping. In 1861 the teenage beauty Harriett Moncrieffe married Sir Charles Mordaunt. Both of these families were ancient titled landed gentry. It was considered a good match. Before she agreed to the marriage, the young Harriett, who had been brought up in a social whirl of balls and dances, laid a stipulation on Sir Charles that she must still be allowed to see her social circle of male friends. The indulgent Sir Charles agreed to this. The couple seemed to get on well and certainly loved each other. The problem arose that when Sir Charles was absent the new young Lady Mordaunt didn't seem to see any wrong in seeing lots of other male admirers too, which included HRH the Prince of Wales (Queen Victoria's son) and his fast set of cronies. The facts are presented, pieced together from servant diaries, statements and private letters. Reading between the lines, Harriet Mordaunt seems to have had titled gentlemen (including the POW) practicaly queueing up to take turns having sex with her. It seems incredible that in that day and age she seemed oblivious that she was doing any wrong. She comes across as rather a dizzy silly person with no sense of responsibility. On the other hand Sir Charles was rather inattentive; he spent most of his time off shooting and fishing, so perhaps he asked for it. Eventually in 1867 she became pregnant . When her daughter Violet was born Harriet seemed to suffer a huge pang of conscience and confessed to her husband that she had slept with at least five men including one who she knew had a venereal disease, but she wasn't sorry because everybody did it; her only regret was that she feared that Violet had been born with the disease and was going blind. The book then relates the two families separating into two camps; Sir Charles, who wanted a divorce, and the Moncrieffes, who tried to have their daughter certified as a lunatic in order that Sir Charles would not be allowed to divorce . It was also undesirable from the point of view of the Queen that the Prince should be implicated in this scandal so they too wanted her committed. In the middle of this the unfortunate Lady Harriet was locked away under guard of servants and doctors. Was she pretending to be mad under orders from her father? Or was she driven mad in reality from being locked away? Did she realise the danger she was in? The author presents all the facts and lets the reader make up their own mind. The court case was awesome! More gripping than any novel. This case rocked the boat of the upper classes and washed their dirty linen in public. Were the lawyers and the judge just and fair? Or were they the agents of the monarchy and the establishment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted September 13, 2014 Author Share Posted September 13, 2014 Lurulu 3/5 Jack Vance Thoughtful Daughter bought me this book for Christmas 2 years ago but I didn't read it straight away for a few reasons; the main one being that it was one of the very few Jack Vance books I had not read and so I wanted to save it. The story concerns Myson Tany, a young man who's stolid parents want him to study and take a career as a financial consultant; but he dreams of being a spaceman and roaming the Gaean Reach. You can probably guess which way the story goes. Comparing this to other Vance stories, Lurulu is in my opinion a bit of a "lazy" effort. It is nothing much more than a set of linked episodes with Myson and his spaceman companions visting planets and getting into situations which are just excuses for Vance's beautiful descriptions of strange people, planetary vistas ,food and clothes.* It is entertaining, but there is no sense of great purpose or urgent danger as in the great sweeping tales of Planet Of Adventure or Araminta Station or the Alastor Cluster stories. So 3/5 is the very best rating I could give it. *it was not till I started writing myself, and started looking at and dissecting different writer's work, that I realised how Vance ALWAYS describes what people are wearing and eating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 It's a shame it wasn't as good as some of his other work . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted October 25, 2014 Author Share Posted October 25, 2014 I just abandoned a book I got specially from Amazon the other day. It was an autobiography I was actually looking forward to reading it. Black By Design by Pauline Black. She had been lead singer of the Ska band The Selector on the 2-tone record label. I got half way through and I decided that she just wasn't a nice person . I didn't want to read any more about her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 Sympathies. . Sometimes it's just like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 Sorry to hear that, that happens sometimes . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted December 4, 2014 Author Share Posted December 4, 2014 Haven't updated this for a long time. I have a kindle again! Thoughtful Daughter has a new Kindle fire tablet so she gave me her own old kindle, which she didn't use much. I have re-registered it and downloaded those of my books from my amazon account that I need right now, about 100 books. I have separated these into only 6 collections: Jack Vance 17 books George Gissing 21 books Victorian research 13 books Victorian Authors female 18 books Victorian Authors male 31 books SF, Time Travel and everything else 24 books . Can't wait to get reading some more Gissing! I am also at this moment reading the first book of Game Of Thrones as I have a deal with my pal at work; I read the first 3 books if he reads the Lyonesse trilogy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 Congrats on your Kindle ! I hope you enjoy reading your books . I hope you enjoy reading A Game of Thrones! I have to say, the first three books in the ASoIaF series have much more pages than does the Lyonesse trilogy, so it doesn't seem entirely fair. I hope you both enjoy the books you read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted December 4, 2014 Author Share Posted December 4, 2014 Thanks Athena. Yes the first book he gave me of ASoIaF is a bit of a brick to be sure! I am about 1/4 of the way through so far. The style of writing seems rather stolid but I already like a few of the characters. It doesn't seem a very nice world everybody goes out their way to be nasty to everybody and say the most serious grim thing that comes into their heads haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 That's very true! It's a hard world and there are a lot of mean people in it. I'm glad you're liking some of the characters, I think there are some really nice interesting ones in the series. I hope you enjoy the rest of the book, too . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 It's so good to have a kindle again. When my other one broke I was in the middle of In The Year Of Jubilee by George Gissing and had more or less forgotten the plot so have started that one all over again...am also plugging away with Game Of Thrones book 1, reading about 30 pages a day at work. My friend is on holiday at the minute, by the time he gets back I will have finished it, and hopefully he will have finished Lyonesse book 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted December 11, 2014 Author Share Posted December 11, 2014 In The Year Of Jubilee 5/5 George Gissing Couldn't put this down. Started again from the beginning as my old kindle broke when I was only half way through...This is set in London in the year of Queen Victoria's 50 year Jubilee celebrations, (which of course you all knew was 1887 didn't you ) Six months ago when I started this the first time I thought that I wasn't going to enjoy it as much as The Odd Women and The Unclassed but the characters grew on me very quickly. One of Gissing's strengths, it seems to me, is his understanding of the minds of his women characters...thinking about this, in those times as women's actual physical options in any situation were much more constrained, so perhaps easier to work out their possible emotions in plot form....in any case, this deep understanding of the motivations of his characters (both male and female) seems sadly missing in modern writers. Gissing also makes his dialogue work so hard! In this novel his character's conversations tell most of the story for him with just a tiny description of an emotion or an action at exactly the right point to convey the maximum effect. I haven't said anything about the plot, as I don't want to spoil it. What amazes me is that this gem, like many of the best stories, is really just about a group of people ; they live and worry and struggle and die without any huge epic thing going on around them. Their story would be insignificant to everybody around them and would change nothing in history but of course it is the most important thing in their lives. The characters all seemed very real to me. Is there a happy ending? Not telling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 Interesting reviews, James! I found something that would fit in with your research....it's a bit pricy, but FYI.... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dirty-Old-London-Victorian-Against/dp/0300192053 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted December 19, 2014 Author Share Posted December 19, 2014 Thanks Kate! I knew of this book but as you say at the moment it is a bit pricey.....it may go down soon. I have followed Lee Jackson , he has an interesting website. A good search of his site reveals most of his information from the actual primary sources. But good luck to him for doing this, Victorian London is a passion for the bloke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 It's gone on my Wish List. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 Well that's it it's all over. Only 44 books read in 2014. I have shamefully neglected this book log to boot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Well that's it it's all over. Only 44 books read in 2014. I have shamefully neglected this book log to boot. You have! And, I expect better from you this year!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 I assume it's life that got in the way of posting on this log? It happens And you can always try and make up for it this year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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